Infection and Coding Strategies of Arenaviruses, Phleboviruses, and Nairoviruses

Abstract

The infection and coding strategies of three groups of negative-stranded RNA viruses (arena viruses, phleboviruses, and nairoviruses) that include the etiologic agents of hemorrhagic disease in humans have been studied. Arenaviruses have two viral RNA species. The smaller RNA species (S) codes for the viral nucleoprotein (N protein) and for the viral glycoprotein species (G1 and G2, which are derived from a precursor glycoprotein, GPC). The S RNA has an ambisense arrangement. The proteins are translated from subgenomic mRNA species (viz., N protein from a viral-complementary mRNA and glycoprotein from a viral-sense mRNA). The larger arenavirus RNA species (L) is presumed to code for the viral transcriptase/replicase. Phleboviruses and nairoviruses are members of the Bunyaviridae. They both have three species of viral RNA. Other than the sizes of the viral proteins and the viral RNA species, virtually nothing is known about the coding strategy of nairoviruses. Phleboviruses have an ambisense coding arrangement to their smallest (S) RNA species. This S RNA codes for the viral N protein (translated from a viral-complementary mRNA) and a nonstructural protein (translated from a viral-sense mRNA). The middle-size (M) RNA of phleboviruses codes for a precursor to the viral glycoproteins (translated from a viral-complementary mRNA). The largest viral RNA (L) is presumed to code for the viral transcriptase/replicase.